Q835XSC - Dutton Legerra Series 2

[Adrian Southgate]

So, collected last weekend and the first chance I get to go over it we have snow / hail / rain and gales... lovely if your a penguin I guess...

Q835XSC purchased from the factory in 1988, completed in 1990, stored for the winter in 1991 and there it sat for 22 years, possibly one of the saddest Legerras I have ever seen apart from my black one.

It was rough, body panels off, windscreen missing and a sorry case of 4 wheel drum brakes... 

Today it got a wash, nothing special just caravan cleaner and a sponge but an improvement on fungus and moss...

Hell of a job on here lads, starting with a body off chassis check, bushes and bolts and some refurb bits fresh from the sand blasting cabinet.

I will be posting more detail on Mr G's but major updates will be copied onto here too.

[Adrian Southgate]

Maybe... :)

Biggest I can find is 250 kg and thats about £50, I'll have another look as there are plenty that will do 150 kg.

I can always weigh the various components separately.

[James Doulton]

I would expect it to be about 75 kg as standard. 500kg would be a bit over the top, unless you have really over-engineered it!

[Adrian Southgate]

Once its been blasted and is a single colour I could do some hi res photos and some measurements. I'd need a 500kg spring balance to weigh it though as it will hang from the engine hoist. I can do that, gone shopping...

[James Doulton]

And to weigh it, maybe? It might also be 'fun' to do some dimension measurements.

[Adrian Southgate]

Trust me James, I may need a bigger toybox...

It's really tempting to make a jig while its all in bits.

[James Doulton]

Still, you are getting to use all of your 'big' toys!

[Adrian Southgate]

No pictures tonight but been a bit busy..

To allow the chassis to be blasted I wanted to get all the suspension removed, this is the point where you REALLY hope the bloke that built it used grease in the bush tubes to keep the water out, well he didn't. I went round and soaked everything in WD40, anything that would come undone got removed with the wheel gun so that bit was over and done with, going well I thought... The ones that won't come out are going to get grief...

After lots of cursing and attacking things with the angry grinder I managed to get the front off. TCA's no problem, shock tops no problem ... Dutton wishbones - stuck fast and the worst possible places to get at with a slitting disc. Managed to get them out eventually but had to bend the brackets, good job Dutton never welded them all the way round !

Dumped all that off to one side and moved everything down to the back end. I'm expecting this to be hassle as its made up of all the same bushes as the front wishbones and they were rusted in. True to form these were too. Shocks came off easy, sods law the lower trailing arm to chassis bolts were solid and they are a pig to get to. Getting this done with the body on would be pretty much an impossibility without cutting the brackets.

Some time later...

Its off, despite every bush on the back end fighting me its now sitting on the floor awaiting disassembly. Whats worse is knowing I have chosen to do it all again, and again....

Anyway, deconstruction of the back axle now...

I took it off with all the bars still attached as the access to the bolt heads is dire. To make it easier I thought i'd take all the brackets off the axle, just 8 bolts under the spring mounting plates, how hard could that be...?

In true Dutton style the outboard nuts are 3/4 ... the inboard ones are 11/16ths... REALLY...!!

so, air wrench in hand I set about trying to undo the 3/4 ones... wd40, blowlamp at the ready... forget it. After about ten minutes on one bolt, flicking the lever on the gun from forward to reverse and back it finally began to twitch... another ten minutes and it was still just twitching about half a rotation. By this time I gone for the ear defenders... getting a wheel nut off is one thing, getting these undone was something else. 

Two hours later I got the last one off. half past nine... that's 11 hours just to clear every last nut and bolt off the chassis. More to do tomorrow but at least now I'm looking at cleaning and building rather than trying to undo someone elses nuts... 

[Steve Kerswell]

 CAD ?? :-)))

[Paul Sheridan]

CAD    Cardboard Aided Design     :-)))))

[Adrian Southgate]

@ John - any progess is better than no progress - does feel slow though

@ James - no, i measured on the green one, cardboard template jobbie. At that point the rear 'tub' tapers but it doesn't need to, I was considering my options on gaining an inch of space at the back of the seats by tampering with the tub. 

This provides a 'fixed boundary' to any modifications but could also provide another body mounting location.